Contributors

Friday 6 September 2013

Syria - US Congress

The Syrian crisis continues, but for G & P students there are some useful examples of Congress in action; Congress's vote on military action will happen soon, but there have been some developments.

First the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, an important body in the politics of these things, has supported military action. This is a good example of a Senate committee in action.

In addition, members of the Senate and the House are going around their constituents having "town hall" meetings to discuss the issue, as explained in this long piece by CBS News. Overwhelmingly, it seems that Americans are against military action - this does pose questions about the nature of representation by members of Congress; are they simply going to vote no because their constituents say so, or are they going to support Obama's view that it is in the nation's interest?

A classic Unit 4C question asks how representative Congress is - the events here are very relevant for this argument.

The BBC's man in Washington has a piece about it here - the implications could be profound for the political power of President Obama should he lose the vote next week.

[Picture - BBC News]

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